CatoJohansen

MichelleJohansen

Our approach to inspiring leaders, innovation and transformation in the 21st Century

We live in complex times requiring us all to find creative and innovative ways to address the future.Our approach seeks to enhance the self-awareness and capacities of purposeful individuals to lead, innovate and transform themselves their organisations and those they lead.

{slider Vertical Development}

Our focus is on vertical development, increasing the capacity of the individual to deal with complexity, adopting new ways of thinking, understanding and acting. Expanding the individual, team and organisational capacity for leading in the 21st Century, where innovations, creativity and transformation are the new frontiers.

This approach draws on the work of Nick Petrie, Otto Scharmer, Robert Kegan, Jennifer Garvey-Berger.

Recommended reading: -

Vertical Leadership Development - Nick Petrie

Leading from the Emerging Future – Otto Scharmer

Immunity to Change – Robert Kegan

Changing on the Job – Jennifer Garvey-Berger

{slider Being Present}

It is difficult to write about presence as it is not an intellectual concept but a felt experience of being present. Here, now in the moment, consciously aware of your physicality, emotions, thoughts and sensations, not preoccupied by the future or the past. To be present allows us to access our most resourceful, responsive self, the one that can choose how to act, rather than the one that gets caught up in thinking loops, repetitive patterns and kneejerk reacts to the situations in which we find ourselves.

The journey to presence is life-long and requires daily practise. At Johansen we draw on Mindfulness Practises, both those taught for millennia and others developed through recent advances in psychology and neuroscience, to help our clients commence or advance on this journey.

Cato and Michelle are students of the Diamond Approach at the Ridhwan SchoolThis approach draws on our 8 years of training in the Diamond Approach taught by A H Almaas and Sandra Maitri. Our training at the Ridwhan School is an ongoing commitment which sees us attend a minimum of 2 x 8 day retreats a year. Cato is also a member of the seminary and is part way through the 10 year training to become a Ridwhan teacher.

We also draw on the thought leadership of Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer and Joseph Jaworski

Recommended reading: -

Presence - Peter Senge et al

The Diamond Approach – John Davis

{slider Understanding Yourself}

At Johansen, we work with the Enneagram of Personality; a powerful map of the human psyche which provides a rapid and effective way for us to get to know and understand our inner drivers and the lens through which we are viewing the world, our lives and work situations. We have both studied with world leading Enneagram teachers and use this teaching not just with clients but in in our own personal development work.

Superego

Cato and Michelle have trained in the Enneagram with : -

The Enneagram Institute with Don Riso and Russ Hudson

The Ridwhan School wit Sandra Maitri

Recommended Reading

The Essential Enneagram – Daniels and Price

The Wisdom of the Enneagram – Riso and Hudson

Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram – Sandra Maitri

{slider Seeing the Bigger Picture}

Leadership and Group Dynamics - Leadership always takes place in the context of a small group. Developing our capacity for awareness of the dynamics in the groups we are part of, can greatly empower our leadership.

The experiential Leadership Development Programmes Cato works with at INSEAD are founded on an understanding of “Systems Psychodynamics “ - the way in which the emotional needs of individuals and groups shape structures, processes and cultures in a social system and how these in turn shape the experience of those individuals and groups.

Cato has trained with the A K Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems, The Grubb Institute and OPUS (Organisation for Promoting Understanding of Society) in psychoanalytical approaches to groups. These approaches originate from the work of the Tavistock Institute

Systems Thinking supports and develops a leader's capacity to step back and switch between different perspectives, scales and worldview to see their immediate situation within the context of the bigger system.

Exploring the system as a whole enables leaders to understand the issues and address their root causes, not just their symptoms or effects. Working systemically opens up new and different leverage points for change interventions which can help generate positive and lasting change.

Plus the work of a wide range of systems thinkers, including Peter Senge.

Recommended Reading

The Fifth Discipline – Peter Senge

{slider Conversations that Matter}

Convening generative conversations is the art of talking, listening and thinking together, inquiring into different perspectives and exploring ideas to create a shared sense of possibility and purpose.Generative conversations have a quality of openness, deep listening and learning; they encourage us to suspend our voice of judgement, to identify the assumptions that we are operating from, to remain open to other people's perspectives and crystallize future possibilities. Used effectively, generative conversations cultivate transformational learning and leadership and can be the source of breakthrough thinking and innovative ideas.

Cato and Michelle have trained with the Art of Hosting community in the UK and Norway

Our work is also heavily influence by Otto Scharmer’s -Theory U. Cato is undertaking an MIT Open course on Theory U during 2015

{slider Leading Authentically}

Cato undertook the 10 month Co-Active Leadership training programme in the US in 2002, Michelle in Spain in 2007, they were life changing experiences. Both had enjoyed long careers in the corporate world at director level but this was our first experience of taking time out to look at ourselves and our personal leadership in such depth. Not book learning about leadership but a deep, messy, emotive and thought provoking experience of how we were showing us as leaders in the world.

The Co-Active training taught us to approach leadership with personal integrity and honesty, developing in us the courage to be vulnerable and to let our authentic selves be seen. Leading authentically, is often seems to be confused with ethical leadership, what we mean by authentic leadership is creating enough presence and self-awareness to contact our best potential as leaders, developing the capacity to be transparent in a way that is both liberating and inspiring. This experiential awareness underpins our approach to how we develop leadership in other.

Cato and Michelle have both attended the life changing 10 month CTI Co-active Leadership programme developed by Laura Whitworth, Henry and Karen Kimsey-House

{slider Catalysing Change}

Leading from the Future as it Emerges is the approach pioneered by Otto Scharmer in response to the 21st Century’s increasing complexity and exponential rate of change. Following the Theory U process requires people to bring all of themselves to the table and then to co-create ideas and collaborate to generate prototypes that lead to practical solutions. Prototyping is based on the principle of 'failing early to learn fast'. By actively testing these ideas with a wider range of stakeholders, we are able to learn more quickly about what works and, thereby, create more effective, positive change.

Otto Scharmer - Theory U

Cato, in particular, is very inspired by the work of Otto Scharmer and looks to increasingly integrate this approach in his work wherever opportunities arise. Michelle is looking to adopt these principles in Year 2 of the Women’s Leadership Forum.